Month: December 2023

WE stand at the brink of another New Year. As I wish you a happy one, let me say I suspect it will be our best year in a long time.

IN the crisp September air of 1973, after presiding over the Sultan of Perak’s birthday parade at the Malay College grounds in Kuala Kangsar, life took an unexpected turn. An army signal (telegram) from the Defence Ministry (Mindef) arrived in my Taiping office, bearing news that would alter the course of my life — an invitation to enrol in a 15-month course of postgraduate defence technology in England the following […]

MY inaugural visit to the land Down Under was an unforgettable sojourn to the World Expo in Brisbane back in 1988. Inaugurated with regal splendour by the late Queen Elizabeth II, the event catapulted the Australian city Brisbane onto the global stage as the “Sunshine” capital, simultaneously casting the Gold Coast into the limelight of international recognition. Little did I know that this expedition would be a plunge into the […]

FROM the vast tapestry of Malaysia’s airwaves, one name continues to resonate like a familiar melody that lingers in the air — Datuk Yaacob Bahatiar Abdullah, or better known as Jake Abdullah (“Just call me Jake”, he insists).